Alison Watt on Film

During her two-year period in the Gallery’s studio, Watt has created evocative, monumental canvases in response to works in the collection. Her depictions of white fabric take on abstract, spiritual form. Below Alison talks about her film choices.

When I was a little girl I had nightmares about Robert Mitchum. Harry Powell, his character in ‘The Night of the Hunter’, terrified me. I’ve been haunted by Charles Laughton’s vision ever since.

But then all of the films in this season, no matter how disparate, have stayed with me over the years. From ‘Days of Heaven’ to ‘2046’, they’ve allowed me for a short time and in often exquisite ways, to inhabit someone else’s imagination, their abstract fantasies.

Each one amazes by creating meaning through imagery that has managed to enter my consciousness and simply refuses to leave.

Themes of memory, fear and longing are repeated throughout, but most of all, each film has a real sadness at its heart.

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